US Leading in Mobile Payments But Lagging in Contactless

Tuesday, August 20th, 2019

Transaction Network Services sponsored a survey on acceptance of mobile payments across three countries; Australia, the US, and the UK.

The survey, which included over 3,000 customers reported that the US has the highest usage rate of mobile-payment apps at 59 percent. But the UK still leads in contactless payments at 79 percent.

And as expected, TNS also found that younger users would willingly install and use a mobile-payment app on their smartphone devices. Seventy-one percent of ages 16 to 24 showed a preference for payment apps, as did 73 percent of ages 25 to 34.

It also seems like the chances of adoption reduce with age. For consumers between ages 35 to 44, only 59 percent said they would. Forty-two percent of ages 45 to 54 and 28% for ages 55 to 64 were also willing to use payment apps.

The researcher founded that usage rates for the US, and Australia would be highest between ages 25 to 34. Without a doubt, 82 percent of this age-group in the United States said they would use a payment app, as did 73% of the same group in Australia and 65 percent in the United Kingdom.

Other reports per the research stated that more consumers in the US (47 percent) were likely to use a wearable payment device compared to those in the UK and Australia at 42 percent each.

“Forty-eight percent of males across the three countries would willingly pay with a wearable device, while only 39% of females would,” the findings state. “Likelihood was also highest among the younger age-groups, possibly preparing the platform for expansion in the future.”

But consumers are concerned about the security of wearable devices. Sixty-four percent of customers in the US said these fears would keep them owning and using wearables to make payment. That figure compares to Australia’s 68 percent and the UK’s 63 percent.

“Emerging in a time where cybercrime is imminent and news of data breaches frequent various news sources, it isn’t shocking that consumers are showing security concerns linked to wearable devices,” adds the report. “Though there’s no incident of fraudulent activity linked to payments made through wearables at the time this report goes public, it is evident that any breach would threaten to ruin the bottom line of this promising payment method.

Of the subjects who possess smartwatches with payment capabilities, US consumers recorded the highest usage at 47 percent. Once more, younger customers were willing to initiate this type of transaction compared to their older counterparts. Half of (50 percent) of ages 25 to 34 said they already did so, in contrast with 22 percent of ages 55 to 64.

An entire 79 percent of consumers in the UK have used contactless payments, at least once per week, compared to 75 percent of Australian consumers. The US lags, however, with only 60 percent using the avenue per week.

Final Words

Hopefully, the planned upgrade of EMV chip cards to dual-interface types will enable contactless payments and increase usage in the US.